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Blogs Is the iPad the future of computing?

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by arcticstoat, 31 Dec 2010.

  1. Nexxo

    Nexxo * Prefab Sprout – The King of Rock 'n' Roll

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    It is not about Apple! :duh: It is about whether having leaner, specific-tasks-geared closed garden OS on leaner hardware is likely to become prevalent in the future, because that is how most people use their PCs.
     
  2. Xir

    Xir Modder

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    At the same price, yes.
    At a higher price, no.
    :D
     
  3. eddtox

    eddtox Homo Interneticus

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    The fact that apple's "overpriced" products sell as well as they do demonstrates that a significant number of people are willing to pay a premium for that sort of experience.
     
  4. Cthippo

    Cthippo Can't mod my way out of a paper bag

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    This.

    The iPod, iPhone and iPad each continue to dominate in their area of function. Sure, they were first out the gate, but that's not always an indicator for success. What they do all share is a relatively simple UI like we've been discussing. Also, look at all the hackintoshes out there. People are willing to go to a lot of work to get the Mac experience, though perhaps not on the Mac hardware.

    Again, this isn't about Macs, but it does show that people will pay more for a "simple and just works" technology.
     
  5. Nexxo

    Nexxo * Prefab Sprout – The King of Rock 'n' Roll

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    Moreover it is how all technology has evolved: creation, industrialisation, sophistication, commercialisation, domestication.

    The first cars were tools: lorries for transport of goods. Private individuals could not afford them and had no use for them. They were too big and required too much specialist knowledge to operate and maintain. Cars then evolved and became smaller, cheaper and easier to maintain. The Model T came out. Private ownership was now possible. Then cars became even simpler --low maintenance and turn-key in use; run-arounds for general domestic use. Those who want it, still can buy performance or off-road vehicles but most people want something reliable, simple and economical that goes from A to B.

    Powertools? Same story. At first limited to industry, they became available for domestic use in the early 20th Century. The first powertool was a big electric motor mounted on a bench in the garage, that you hooked different adapters to. Then came specific individual powertools. Now you get rechargeable units that measure up and tell you whether you're going straight.

    Radio? Same story. From make-shift devices that you had to build yourself and twiddle with wires and spools to tune in, to table-top boxes with an on-switch, volume button and clear tuning dial, to the digital units that require a simple (autotuned) button press to select your station.

    Computers are like the bench mounted electric motor or crystal radio set. They are now evolving into cheaper, easier and more convenient units geared to specific, most common applications.
     
  6. Xir

    Xir Modder

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    I was told not to write the name "Apple":D
    And we were talking about
    And while there certainly is a significant number of people willing to part with their cash for the experience, they're not the majority of PC users.
    For the majority of PC users to switch to a leaner OS on leaner Hardware, the price has to come down.
     
  7. eddtox

    eddtox Homo Interneticus

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    I'm not sure that's the case. As has already been mentioned, most people couldn't care less about the hardware in their devices. All they care about it what the hardware does and how well.

    As long as the hardware is adequate to support the experience and applications they want, that's all they care about.
     
  8. Cthippo

    Cthippo Can't mod my way out of a paper bag

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    I wonder if both MS and Apple have too much emotional baggage attached to them to be the leaders in this field. Android / Chrome OS, on the other hand, may be perfectly positioned for it.
     
  9. eddtox

    eddtox Homo Interneticus

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    The only problem with Chromos is that it's cloud-only, and people may have some qualms with that for a while yet.
     
  10. Cthippo

    Cthippo Can't mod my way out of a paper bag

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    I think the recent Wikileaks experiences have caused people to start asking some hard questions about cloud dependent computing. What happens if Google (or whoever) decided my data violates their terms of service? If the remote server goes down, or even if I just lose connectivity on my end, am I unable to work on anything?

    I think these kinds of questions are going to be barriers to acceptance and so Google will end up implementing local support until people get more comfortable with the cloud.
     
  11. Nexxo

    Nexxo * Prefab Sprout – The King of Rock 'n' Roll

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    I think that you are right that (at the moment) Microsoft carries too much baggage. Judging by thus thread alone Apple certainly does. But most muggles' experience of Apple is through iOS driven products already. Possibly Microsoft can pull a similar hat trick with Windows Mobile 7 --if it wides up and learns to market it more aggressively. Zune easily equals iPod in quality. But outside the US almost nobody has heard of it yet.

    And I also think you are right about the Cloud. For cloud-computing to take off we'd have to have more ubiquitous and cheaper data services, and ones that are not compromised by political or commercial interests. It needs to be thought of in the same way as utilities; nobody would accept their water or electricity being turned off because the government did not like how you were using it. This is a shift in my thinking: I used to think that treating broadband as a human right or quality of life issue was pretentious --I considered it a luxury, like Sky TV, not a life necessity like water, gas, electricity. Since Wikileaks I am reconsidering fast.
     
  12. Xir

    Xir Modder

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    Correct, but that also works the other way. They don't care about the hardware, but they do care about the price...
    If I want to surf, and on the one hand I have a device that's a little clumsy, and on the other a neat device that gives me a little smoother experience. Which one to buy (for the masses?)
    At near identical cost, it would be a no brainer.
    At twice the cost, only the professionals, the wealthy and the stylish take the smoother device.

    Which are still al lot of people, but not the majority
     
  13. Zombie

    Zombie What's a Dremel?

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    Wow, well I was a bit off with the 3 years idea...

    Motorola Atrix android phone released yesterday does exactly what I suggested above.
     
  14. mediapcAddict

    mediapcAddict What's a Dremel?

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    Sorry but i'm currently leaning back on a comfy chair reading this on a 24 inch screen
    - serious multi tasking and work computing is better on a large screen.

    Most of the benfits listed are OS based anyway.
    "doesn’t fail, yet is cool, fun and easy to use"
    "password-protect or remove the App Store, and you’ll have a locked down system"
    "PCs that can’t crash, or have dodgy software installed on them"
    Microsoft I'm looking at you!!

    Add a keyboard, mouse and decent screen and you're very near a pc/laptop with a good OS and a touch screen.

    Apple may have started an ease of use revolution (and that is something many software writers could learn from) but windows/pc can't be beaten on software/hardware choice and flexability.
     
  15. Nexxo

    Nexxo * Prefab Sprout – The King of Rock 'n' Roll

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    And again: It is not about Apple. It is about whether a simpler application-specific OS is better than a complicated OS the flexibility of which is hardly ever exploited by most ordinary users anyway.

    Hence the benefits listed are OS based. It is a discussion about the philosophy of the OS, not about Apple.
     
  16. leveller

    leveller Yeti Sports 2 - 2011 Champion!

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    By the end of 2011 we will have seen around 100 variations of tablets. According to Bloomberg analysts. I would say for investment analysts to be going gaga over tablets is a sure sign that there really is money to be made.
     
  17. nukeman8

    nukeman8 What's a Dremel?

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    Arcticstoat wrote apple or ipad in just about every line in the blog, its hard for people not to go on about apple.

    Im not to knowledged about how apple runs things but from what i have heard you can only install what they have officially supported/approved?
    If so that would be a nightmare for a business, you would be relying on another company to choose what programs you can use.

    Out of curiosity does anyone know if the percentage of mac users has gone up since the iphone/ipod/ipad boom? Just wondering if all the apple rage recently has helped their actual computer user base count.
     
    Last edited: 9 Jan 2011
  18. jrs77

    jrs77 Modder

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    First of all, it wasn't Nexxo who wrote the article, but arcticstoat.

    Second. If you read the article and understnad it, then the iPad is just used as an example, becuase it's the only kind of hardware currently on the market that comes close to a device described in the article. It's easier for people to understand this way instead of trying to describe a low-powered device with a slimmed down OS.

    Third. You can jailbreak the iPad and install software you've not obtained through the AppStore, which allows for basically any kind of software you want.

    Last but not least. The amount of people, who allready bought an iPad shows, that there's alot of interest in a device like that and the netbooks shown at CES running Android are basically just as limited as the iPad with it's iOS.
    Google want to go even further with it's ChromeOS and only allow software to be used online (e.g. cloud-computing). You don't install software anymore, but only buy the license to unlock the webservice to use the software which is running on Google-servers.

    And now, with Google getting alot of applause for it's beta-model CR-48 currently out in the wilds, I think that we can easily assume, that this will be the future for the masses, who don't use their PC for work or for gaming, but only office, internet and media-playback.

    The people here on bit-tech are nerds. We aren't the 80-90% of the whole endconsumer-market these new low-powered and slimmed down systems are ment for, but my sister or my mother for example will love these devices and their easy-to-use OS/software.
     
  19. nukeman8

    nukeman8 What's a Dremel?

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    Ah my mistake, thanks for the correction.

    After rereading it all it seems that the ipad is far far off what is being spoken about and everybody seems to be talking about 3 different things.
    The ipad/tablets aren't the future just the next stepping stone to whatever is next, and i bet whatever you want is looks or acts nothing like an ipad.
     
  20. jrs77

    jrs77 Modder

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    If you want to know more about how the future of computing for the masses will look like, then look at this....

    http://www.google.com/chromeos/pilot-program-cr48.html

    http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QRO3gKj3qw This video is telling!

    Pair this with touchscreen-technology and/or tablets and you get the idea.
     
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